Absorber.



N. H. HILLER. ABsoBBBB.

4 APPLICATION FILED BEPT.28,`1908. 970,050.

Patented Sept. 13, 1910.

NICOLAI H. KILLER, 0F CARBONDALE, PENNSYLVANIA.

ABSORIBER.-

Specification of Letters Patent. Patentedsept. 13, 1910.l

'Application iledj September 28, 1908. Serial No. 455,094.

To all -whom 'it may'co'ncem:

Be it known that I, NICOLAI H. HILLER, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Carbondale, county of Lackawanna, State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Absorbers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvement-s in absorbers` such as are used in absorption refrigeratng machines.

'lhe invention consists in improved means for mingling the @as and weak'liquor, in improved means For preventing Siphonng. and in other features hereinafter set forth and particularly pointed out in the claims.

l'hc objects of my invention are, to improve the construction of absorbers, to obtain a greater strength of solution, to obtain high etliciency of operation, to make the absorber very easy to operate, to prevent siphoningf to provide for the easy freef ing of the absorber from air or foul gas, and

in general to make the absorber relatively inexpensive in construction, simple, compact, and reliable..

j 'Ihe improved absorber herein described comprises one or more return bend pipe coils connected in multiple to the gas return and weak liquor pipe lines and to the strong liquor line, each coil being provided at its lower end with an injector operated b the weak liquor, which injector at once raws the gas' into the coil and serves to mix it eitciently with the weak liquor.

smaller scale.

inl the accompanying drawings I illustrate 'an absorber such as referred to, Figure l lshowing a side sectional elevation thereof and Fig. 2 an end elevation thereof on a Fig. 3 shows an elevation of one of the elbows or return bend fittings.

'In the drawings, 1 designates the gas return pipe line, 2 the Weak liquor line, 3 a portion of the generator-of an absorption refrigerating apparatus and 3 the exchanger ot' such an apparatus, these parts being shown diagrammatically only and for convenience on a smaller scale than the absorber hereinafter mentioned, and 4 designates the strong liquor line.

5, 5 designates return bend pipe coils constituting the absorber. There may be few or many ofthese coils, according to the desired capacityof the absorber, each coil constituting in facta separate absorber capable of operation independent of all of the others. At its lower or inlet end each such coil 5 is provided with an injector 6, the nozzle 7 of lnto intimate contact 'and mingled. The

liquor and gas then pass into the lower section of the pipe coil 5, and pass up through the severalsections thereof, linally passing through valved discharge pipe l2 into the strong liquor line Ll. The absorption of ammonia in water or weak aqua ammonia is not effected instantaneously, but requires a certain amount of time, which is afforded during the passage of the gas and liquid, in contact with each other, through the various sections of the coil 5; likewise, much heat is liberated during the absorption of the gas in the weak liquor, and to carry oii'. this heat I arrange tospray water over the pipe `coils 5, providing for this purpose a tank 13 having orifices in its bottom through which the water in the tank is sprinkled down u on the upper sections of the coils 5 and alls thence from section to section, so cooling all eiliciently. 4

It is esirable that an absorber shall produce as strong asolution as possible, as, other things being equal, the stronger the solution produced the more eilicient the apparatus. Production of a strong solution requires not only efficient cooling of the absorber, but the production of: a certain amount of ypressure therein, as the greater the pressure under which the absorption takes place, the stronger the solution which can be roduced at the temperature obtaining in t e absorber. Since the injector 6 is operated by a jet of liquid received into the absorber under pressure, the generator 3 being under pressure during the operation of the apparatus, it is ca able Aof producing a considerable pressure 1n the absorber itself and so permits operation of the absorber at a relatively hi h pressure. a Vstrong solution in this absorberl is also favored owing to the cooling water first encountering that portion of the absorber in which the solution is the strongest and thence flowing over the other portions of the pipe 9- Production of los' - producing,

absorber in which the solution'iisless strong; the direction of flow of the cooling water being opposite to the general direction of flow of the liquor in tho pipe coils-z'. e., the general direction of flow ofjsuch `liquor in the coils being upward, while the cooling water flows downward over the coils, thus tending to maintain the upper coils at a lower temperature than the lower coils; and flowing the cooling`water-over the coils in this manner is advantageous, not only because 1t favors the production of a strongsolution,

and-'for obvious structural advantages, but also because economy in the use of cooling water is obtained. y

In the o eration of coil absorbers it has been foun that, unless means be taken to prevent, an action termed siphoning is apt to occur, whereby a relatively large body of liquid passes over into the discharge pipe 12 suddenly, leaving behind it a space containing only gas. Such action is of course extremely detriment-al asl it not only lowers the efficiency of the absorber, but renders its operation unsteady. I have found that it may be prevented by providing obstructions in the pipe coil at `suitable places, such as the obstructions n15 in the return bends of the pipe coils; these obstructions being, in the form shown, bars cast acrossthe orifices of the return bends. This siphoning is probably due to an action somewhat as follows: Some separation of the gas from the liquid occurs in the pipe coil,

so to'speak, a slug ofgas, followed by a slug of liquid. Vhen the gas has passed oft' through vpipe 12 and the following slug of liquid passes down throu h said pipes, as soon as the liquid hasY passe sufficient-ly far down in the pipe it siphons off the liquid as farback as the rst obstruct-ion, and, ifthere were no obstructions, it would Siphon 0H practically all of the liquid in the coil. But the obstruo.

tions 15 impose such resistance to the flow` of the liquid as to break the liquid-column at thelast or top obstruction, so that practically only that liquid in the coil which has passed beyond the last obstruction is siphoned off, the remainder of the liquid with the as mixed with it passing through the coil s owly and regularly until, after a time, another slug of separated gas forms, when the operation is repeated. The confning of the siphoning action to the upper section of the coil so reduces the trouble from siphoning that it is practically negligiF ble, whereas heretofore this trouble has been so serious as to interfere greatly with the use of up-liow coil absorbers.

There is preferably, a small opening 16` between the lower side of each obstruction thevcoil, buthaye also been found to increase materiall the eiicency of the absorber, in operation, for the reason that such `openingsl tend to prevent the formation of separated slugs of gas by permitting the liquor to iow into a section of the coil in which a 'slug of gas 'may be forming.

One of the principal troubles experienced inthe operatiomof absorption icc machines is, the necessity of getting air 4or foul gas out of the absorber. This is'particularly true when the apparatus is used for produc- ,ing very low temperatures; in which case the pressure 1n the absorber may often be below the atmosphere. In the absorber herein described, air or foul gas may be removed from it, unit by unit, without stop! ping the operation of the absorber as a whole, by cutting ofi' the units one by one, from the gas return line 1` and from the strongliquor line 4, by closing the valves provided for that purpose, and by opening a vent valve 17 provided at the top of each ,unit, the connection of the unit so cut oil' with the Weak liquor return line 2 being kept open. Obviously, in the section so cut oll, the liquor will rise in that section, drivingout all air or gas which may be in that particular section; and when that section is filled with liquor the vent valve 17 may be closed and the valves in the gas return connection and ldischarge 'connection opened, and that unit put in operation again. -In this way, lonly one unit -of the absorber is out of service at any onetime, and the purging of the absorber from air or foul gas is conducted ,without shutting down the whole absorber.

Another feature of the apparatus illustrated, and particularly of the injector thereof, is the sediment pocket' 18 in the injector, Iinthe rear of nozzle 7 thereof. This sediment pocket is designed to retain any dirt (scale or the like) which may come in with the weak liquor and which otherwise 4might passthrough the apparatus. In order that any scale or the like which may fail to deposit in this pocket may not clog the noz-- Zle 7, the bore of said nozzle is made smallest at its front end, so that any dirt or scale which actually enters the bore will surely' pass through any other portion of the bore. l Another featurey of lthe invention is the lloy drain connection 19 applied in this case to the injector.

By this connection any unit of the absorber may be emptied of its ammonia by drawing off the ammonia through. y

the drain into a suitable empty drum.

The operation of the absorber will bc clea from the foregoingy description, and hence need not be specifically described. l

It will be noted that the gas return or header 1 is'shown at a higher level than no time will there be Aany chance that the `the upper pipes of the absorber so that. at'4V Q iso such sections of pipe located approximately liquor may fall back from the absorber through pipe 9 and interfere with the gas coming in through pipe 1.

lVhat I claim is 1. An absorber; comprising one or more pipe-units, and an injector at the receiving end of such unit or units, each such injector adapted for connection of its nozzle to a weak liquor line and for connection of its combining space to a gas return line, the discharge end of the pipe adapted for conuection to a strong liquor line, each said pipe-unit provided at an intermediate point in its length vwith means obstructing the [low of liquid and gas therethrough.

An absorber comprising one or more return bend pipe units comprising sections of pipe and return bend fittings therefor',

horizontally one above another progressively, and means for supplying weak liquor and gas to the lower portlon o such unit or units, and for carrying away strong liquor lfrom the upper portions thereof, one or o more of such return bend pipe litt-ings of each such unit having an obstruction to its bore in its upper nearly horizontal part, whereby siphoning off of large portions of the contents of such units is prevented.

3. All absorber comprising one or more return bend pipe units comprising sections of pipe 'and return bend fittings therefor, suchsections of pipe located approximately horizontally one above another progressively, and means for supplyin weak liquor and gas to the lower p'ortion o such unit or -in its upper nearl units, and for carrying away strong liquor from the upper portions thereof, one or more of such return bend ipe fittings of each such unit having an o struction to its bore horizontal part, there being an opening or the passage of liquid betweenthe lower portion of such obstruction or obstructions, and the bottom of the corresponding return bend pipe fitting, whereby siphoning ott' of large portions of the contents of such units is prevented.

4. An absorber comprisinga plurality of pipe units, said units having multiple clonnections to a weak liquor header, to a gas hea'der, and to a strong liquor header, and

having valves in such connections, andhav-` ing each a valved vent at substantially its top, through which' air and foul gas may be drawn olf.

5. An absorber comprising one or more pipe units and an injector at the receiving end of such unit or units, each such injector adapted for connection of its nozzle to a weak liquor line and for connection of its combining space to a gas return line, and.

having in rear of its nozzle a sediment pocket, the boreof the nozzle of gradually increasing diameter from the sediment pocket onward.

In testimony whereof I have lsigned this specification in the presence of two sub# scribing witnesses. f

NICOLAI H. HILLER.

lVitnesses: y

E. M. HoLooME, F. R. lfUmusH. 

